Theater Articles and Press Releases

"Ten Thousand Things speaks to nontraditional audiences, and they speak back."
Laura Butchy, American Theater
- Read the full article

"Performing for prisoners and other unlikely audiences, Michelle Hensley's Ten Thousand Things Theater Company revives the classless spirit of classical theater."
Tim Gihring, Minnesota Monthly

"Ten Thousand Things theater knows a thing or two about captive audiences"
David Hawley, MinnPost
- Read the full article

"The powerful myth shines through in this joyous telling of a sweet love story."
Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
"All I really want to say about Ten Thousand Things' production of "Once On This Island" is that I loved it. It was cool. I laughed. I would have cried if people weren't looking at me. I was totally into it."
– Read the full article

"Once On This Island It's well worth lingering on this musical's shores."
Dominic Papatola, Pioneer Press
"This is a mightily sung, heartfully acted, sure-footed staging that pulls you into its world and makes you linger there, even after the last notes have faded."
– Read the full article

"I've seen few pieces of recent theater so pleasurable to watch and to admire."
Quinton Skinner, City Pages
– Read the full article

"There are scenes in this play of great beauty – virtually all of it provided through strong performances. Sonja Parks is somehow both ethereal and sparky as Eurydice and Marc Halsey is engagingly sweet as her adoring, though self-absorbed, Orpheus. Steve Hendrickson's portrayal of paternal tenderness breaks the heart, even as he slowly constructs a room for his daughter out of string in a wonderful scene.

The production, directed flowingly by Larissa Kokernot, floats on a sound design by Peter Vitale that uses a huge array of imaginative devices, instruments and electronic effects. In the end, it becomes something lingering for the heart and the soul."
David Hawley, St. Paul Pioneer Press

"It's phenomenally moving stuff."
Quinton Skinner, City Pages
- Read the full article

"This Richard III restores faith in the Bard."
Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
"Intimate, articulate, so emotionally honest that we wait achingly for each line, the staging affirms another personal opinion: Ten Thousand Things produces this community's best Shakespeare."
- Read the full article

"Raw and powerful, distilled to the simplest essence of presentation but complex and nuanced where it counts, in the performance of the uniformly excellent cast and Michelle Hensley's penetrating and fluid direction . . . The actors get right to the guts of the story, elevating it from dusty, who-cares English history to whatever modern relevance one chooses to find, whether its Washington politics or local gangs."
Carla Waldemer, The Onion

"A Closer Look at Evil."
Quinton Skinner, City Pages
"In this production's intimate setting, Davis is a blast to watch."
- Read the full article

"Ten Thousand Things theater company finds the rich human subtlety in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice."
Graydon Royce, Star Tribune

"In a Garden made the abstruse, idiosyncratic, repetitive world of Stein a near-perfect analogy for childhood."
Dominic Papatola's 2006 Top Ten, Pioneer Press

2007 Star Tribune - Outstanding Small Theater Production: Richard III; Outstanding Actor Performance: Bob Davis in Richard III; #2 for Outstanding Musical: Little Shop of Horrors; Top Three Small Stage Theater Picks of the Summer: Little Shop of Horrors; Outstanding Actress Performance: Barbara Berlovitz in Blood Wedding Pioneer Press - #8 Top Ten List: Little Shop of Horrors City Pages - Standout Sets/Design: Blood Wedding 2006 Star Tribune - Outstanding Small Theater Productions: Merchant of Venice Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: In a Garden (#7) 2005 Ivey Award for Steve Hendrickson's performance as the lead in Cyrano Star Tribune - Outstanding Small Theater Productions: Antigone, Iphigenia Outstanding Musical: Ragtime Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: Antigone (#2) Francesca Primus Prize for outstanding contribution to the American theater by a female artist 2004 Star Tribune - Outstanding Small Theater Production: Cyrano Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: Cyrano (#2) A Winter's Tale (#7) 2003 Pioneer Press - The Good Person of Szechwan (#5) Star Tribune - Outstanding Ensemble: The Good Person of Szechwan

2002 McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship: Michelle Hensley 2001 Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: The Most Happy Fella (#4) City Pages - Top Ten List: The Most Happy Fella (#7) 2000 City Pages - Top Ten List: The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: Cymbeline (#6) Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship: Michelle Hensley 1999 Pioneer Press - Top Ten List: The Tempest (#3) Star Tribune - Outstanding Productions: The Unsinkable Molly Brown 1998 City Pages - Top Five Most Exquisite Productions: Measure of Measure (#3)